Loss, Hope & Redemption: Recension
by Gaming Ikari
Summary: Faced with the choice of ending a life or his love, Saotome Ranma makes the only choice his principals will allow... A choice that will take him farther from his home than he's ever been before. This is a rewrite.
1. Chapter 1

Loss, Hope & Redemption: Recension

oOo

Chapter 1

oOo

Two weeks after the failed wedding I was still shaking my head at the pandemonium that was my life. Who else had to worry about their best friend bringing explosives to disrupt the ceremony? Or a stalker showing up in a wedding dress? Or an accidentally-acquired wife showing up to stake her claim on his hide?

Not to mention cursed water flying above all the girls I car-_knew_, while still more people, all of them either angry with the bitter reactions of those estrogen-fueld first problems or just pissed at me, did their part to feed the chaotic onslaught.

The whole thing was a fiasco with a capital F. Possibly bolded and written on a five-foot wallscroll, if the fallout continued as it had. Mom was overjoyed with my manliness, but she'd after she began a lecture, something about "keeping his mistresses in their place," I'd continued to nod while I tuned her out. The old man was little better, telling me to sort out my problems so they no longer interfered with my duty... Never mind the fact that most of my problems can be pinned on the balding jerk himself. My pop's drinking buddy was hardly better, moaning about the spineless wastrel engaged his daughter.

His tirade cut off when he noticed the low growl in my throat as I fought my anger. That rare surfacing of my fight to control my anger, coupled with the my total refusal to talk about Jusendo, about my battle for his daughter's life, cowed even the mighty Demon Head technique.

Yet all these were issues that were... Maybe not resolved, but at least they were stable. Cologne and the Amazons knew to keep their distance, realizing that they'd probably pushed me one time too many. I'd talked to Ucchan a bit and she even apologized for her part in the chaos, though she was now avoiding me as much as she could. Even Kodachi was showing some brains and keeping away.

None of the jerks who made my life so interesting were after my blood at the moment, most of them still basking in my failed nuptuals.

No, all the problems I had right now were not what kept me from sleeping. Something bad was about to happen. I could feel it like an unscratchable itch right below my pigtail, throbbing every time I tried to put it from my mind. Every time something really bad came stomping into my life, I got that itch.

I'd learned to trust it.

The last time I got this feeling was when I saw Plum running from those bird people and this feeling of mine had been right. That trouble meant I'd been forced to fight a God! Well, I'm pretty sure he was a god. Half-god, maybe.

Normal people don't burn up and turn back into babies when they get ripped to shreds by a chi attack powerful enough to reshape mountains. The True Blunder, Mousse, or even Ryouga would have dead.

Then again our fights never got that serious. We all might go at each other tooth and nail, with not a hair of our strength held back, but we never escalated things to the final, irrevocable point of kill or be killed. For all their cries about wanting my skull for a soup dish, none of 'em followed through when Fate conspired against me to give 'em the chance. Despite how much they'd aggravated my situation and complicated my life, I never added that extra bit of strength to my last blow to kill instead of disable.

Then again, none of them were ever stupid enough to threaten Akane. Even Mousse, dense as he was, knew not to do that again.

The problem was that this time was that the feeling came outta nowhere. The itch had casually appeared right after school, becoming more and more noticable as the evening wore on, without any sudden attacks or strange people showing up on our doorstep. The only thing I'd done aside from relax was reheat some leftover rice from dinner, and I doubted that that was going to cause some titanic struggle for my soul.

Pausing for a moment at the thought, I examined the bowl of rice. Yeah, it was just rice with a few pieces of tempura shrimp on top. Walking out of the kitchen, I crossed the living room and sat on the edge of the porch so that I could stare at the sliver of a moon peeking out from behind dark clouds. The whisper of the wind as it blew through the trees was the only sound, aside from the far-off buzz of downtown Tokyo traffic.

Everything seemed perfectly normal, as if the world had decided to finally give Saotome Ranma a break. Yeah. Like that would _ever _happen. At dinner, Nabiki had noticed and called me paranoid. She didn't understand that when nearly everyone was out to get you, it was not paranoia: It was simply pattern recognition.

I'd rather be keyed up for no reason the one time it wasn't called for than get caught napping the ninety nine times it was.

Rice in one hand and chopsticks in the other, I walked out from under the roof of the porch and casually hopped onto the roof of the Dojo. Munching on the re-heated tempura shrimp and wishing I'd dashed on some teriyaki sauce, I scanned the surrounding rooftops.

My attention became wrapped up in enhancing my awareness with a chi technique I picked up from Cologne. Despite the strands of chi stretched out to embrace the area around me there was nothing at all, for nearly a mile. The chi under my control embraced every speck of life within that radius, and still I felt nothing.

Maybe I _was _getting paranoid. You don't get as good as I do without learning to trust your instincts, and my instincts were telling me to run and hide. Something bad was coming, something that I should run from. Not that I would, but those instincts did make a pretty damned good warning sign. Most of the time.

Maybe I was wrong. I hoped I was. If I could pick, I'd rather be rattled by my failed wedding any day than find out what was making my pigtail twitch.

I pricked my ears up as I heard a faint flapping sound. The itch started to fade. This was it. This was the start of something I really didn't want to deal with. But Saotome Ranma doesn't back down or give up without a fight.

As the sound drew closer, I realized it was too heavy for any normal sized bird. That'd probably make it one of Saffron's people, or Shinnosuke'd finally forgotten his duties at Ryuugenzawa. Finally seeing the source of the sound proved that Shinnosuke was still alive, clueless, and beating large helpless animals into paste.

The winged person flying in my direction, by contrast, didn't look quite alive. She was pressing her hands against her side and an empty scabbard at her hip told me she was either useless with her weapon or had seen the losing end of a fight recently. With the blood covering her from head to toe, I knew only a stubborn resolve was keeping her on this side of mortality.

I carefully put my empty rice bowl on the roof and began a sprint across the rooftops. As I got closer, I recognized the bird woman: Kiima. Her face was pale, even for her complexion. Her hazel eyes were glassy, only noticing me when her meandering flight brought her within a few feet. Those eyes took me in as she bounced on tile in an awkward landing, an otherworldly mix of desperation and hope tinged by despair.

For the first time, I noticed the purple flecks buried in the hazel. Time seemed to slow in that moment, right before her eyes fluttered shut.

As her knees went slack and she began to fall, I hesitated for a brief moment. This woman had nearly killed Akane. She'd stolen my fiancee's face for the sole purpose of tricking me and my friends. The insensitive jerk in me wanted nothing to do with her problems. My duty as a martial artist smothered that momentary thought and I gently caught her willowy form before she got halfway to the ground.

She wasn't an enemy here, now. She was just an injured woman who need protection. And she had to be very desperate if I was a better alternative than whatever chased her.

"Hey, you alright?" As I gently lay her on the rooftop, I took a closer look at her injuries. Her breathing was laboured and numerous small patches of dried blood were nearly obscured by the few large injuries she had. Blood was welling up through the rips in her tunic, maybe not an immediate threat, but bad enough. I was pretty sure she'd live if I bandaged her wounds and got her to a warm bed.

I wanted nothing more than to rush her to Tofu's clinic but the place had been deserted for months. Cologne was almost as good as the Doc at fixing people up, but I didn't want to put her sworn enemy in her care. That left taking her back to the dojo and doing what I could. I gathered her in my arms, curiousity burning as I considered her wounds.

I had to assume that whoever was chasing her had toyed with her for a while, first. Dozens of half-healed wounds which did little more than cause pain and sap endurance marked her body. Some were nearly-healed while others were no more than three or four days old. From what I remembered, her endurance was good enough that the smaller wounds wouldn't have significantly hampered her fighting ability. That meant her enemies hadn't gotten bored of half-dead prey.

They'd figured out where she was going and tried to stop her. That meant they knew who I was. I couldn't imagine her coming all the way to Japan for anyone else, given her last trip here'd been her first. Someone who knew who I was and didn't want me to know about whatever trouble had fallen into my lap, all wrapped up in a strangely light woman.

I was distracted by Kiima's wounds, I guess. Or maybe I was still a little stunned about having a bird woman just drop in my lap without a word. Whatever the reason, I wasn't paying attention as I bounded back to the Tendo's.

That was why when someone jumped up to attack me between rooftops, I wasn't prepared. A flash of grey at the edge of my vision, too close to avoid, was my only warning.

Instinctively pulling Kiima closer to my chest, I grunted and bit back a yell as a clawed hand raked across my lower body and sent me twisting into the night, ground and sky warring in my vision as I spun. Knowing that the uncontrolled tumble would mean Kiima's end if I didn't land under my own power, I threw all of my concentration into the Saotome mastery of mid-air to kill my rotation and orient the sky and ground above and below. I rotated my hips and kicked my legs to plant one foot on the side of a low apartment building, spinning as I folded my leg to bleed off the inertia as smoothly as possible.

I knew if I didn't move before gravity robbed me of my footing I was going to be an irresistable target. I uncoiled my leg to propel myself towards the ground and landed, barely kicking up the ghost of a whisper. My eyes darted from one shadow to the next, my awareness heightened by the andrenaline and anger beating angrily at my temples.

"Come out and fight me, you dirty coward!" I yelled. Who didn't even announce themselves before they attacked? Granted, I'm the best there is, but that's no excuse! I allowed my battle aura to surge, manifesting as a flowing blue glow that lit the area around me in a shifting light. I saw my assailant, crouching in the shadows of a house two doors down. Either he was wearing an animal's fur or he was actually part animal, because the few details I could pick out were greyish fur and wolf-like ears. "There's no use hiding! I see you! Come out and fight me!"

Part of me wanted to close the distance, despite the responsibility in my arms. I wanted to pound the bastard into the dirt, my rage growing as I felt the blood trickling my left leg. Not much, little more than a scratch. It'd be closed within an hour, and healed by morning. The problem was that it was still enough to be a distraction I didn't need, especially carrying an injured person... even if that person was pretty much an enemy.

Still, he didn't move. He stayed crouched there, watching me. Waiting. I couldn't go back to the dojo, not with this guy out here. This fight was going to happen sooner or later, and a large part of me wanted it to happen right now. There was no use running. Either he was weaker than me and I could kick the crap outta him before I dealt with Kiima, or he was better than me, toying with me, and we were already dead.

I couldn't lead him back to the Tendo Dojo, to wait until my guard was down.

"I said, come and fight me you-" I cut off and jumped straight up as I heard a scuff to my left. A large shape rushed in below me, then stumbled as his punch passed just below my toes. As I reached the apex of my own leap I briefly let go of my burden. Cupping now free hands and aiming them at my second attacker I screamed "Mouko Takabisha!"

Brilliant yellow energy briefly flashed at in my hands before flying directly at the larger of my two opponents, washing over and consuming him. The energy burst on contact, bright light filling the neighborhood and illuminating my opponent before he ploughed a trench into the street with his face... an ugly face, framed by two tiger-striped shoulder guards. Lime. Which would make the other one-

"Mint." I growled as I gently caught Kiima, an instant before we landed. She hadn't even noticed. The Musk youth weighed me as I glanced at Lime, slowly shaking off the rough treatment his failed attack visited on him. The wolf-boy stepped out of the shadows, feral eyes shining. "What the heck do you think you're doing?"

"This doesn't involve you, Ranma." Mint returned, walking over to his downed friend. He rocked back and forward on his heels as he considered me. Eager. Eager but wary, now. Over two months earlier I'd fought Herb to a standstill, with me at a disadvantage. He knew that even if I was wounded, I was male and pissed off. Still, he pressed on: "Just let us have the bird woman and we'll leave."

"You two losers think you can beat me?" I chuckled, taking them in. Who did they think they were dealing with? Lime still looked half out of the fight and on top of that... I'd only gotten stronger since fighting these two. Clearly they hadn't, not by any measurable degree. Kiima shifted in my arms, a whimper of pain silencing my chuckle. I knew this had to be finished quickly. "Y'know, I was able to beat Herb pretty easy. Think you two clowns will do any better?"

"We're stronger now, Ranma." Mint snarled and blurred out of sight. I flared my aura, not bothering to move. Coming back into view, Mint tumbled down the street as he was knocked off balance, the pressure of my aura alone defeating his charge. He finally regained his footing and slid to a stop forty feet away. I took a step towards him, and he backed off.

"You've won this one, but this isn't the end, Saotome!" Mint blurred again, and he was gone. Lime had disappeared while I was concentrating on his partner. Shifting Kiima in my arms, I made my way back to the dojo.

oOo

"Why should we protect her?" The question hung in the air, and only ice-cold eyes boring into me proved it had actually been asked. Nabiki had always been a bit mercenary... But this was beyond that. My father, Tendou, and Kasumi stood to the side, watching. I knew I'd get no support from them.

Didn't they realise that the past didn't matter, the present did? At present, Kiima clearly needed my help. The fact they were even questioning it was beginning to make me angry.

"Nabiki... How many of my friends now were enemies before?" I questioned, my attention focused on tending Kiima's numerous wounds. As my hands rubbed a salve into her numerous cuts, my eyes met hers. I pleaded, "Ryouga, Mousse, even Shampoo... They've all tried to kill me. All of 'em were enemies just as much as this chick. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't they all at our Christmas party? Aren't they friends now? How is Kiima any different?"

"She put my sister in danger, Ranma. I heard the story." If Nabiki was cold before, bow she's pure ice. She's in the sort of mood I can see her in while demanding money of Hiroshi or Daisuke on payday, taking most of their hard-earned money in interest. That same cold anger had cowed me before, but not this time. The heat of my anger was more than a match for the frigid mood she was in.

"Ryouga's the reason Akane's hair is shorter. Shampoo caused Akane to forget me entirely. Even Mousse nearly cursed Akane with a Jusenkyo curse... How are they any different?" My ire was up. I wasn't all too happy with Nabiki at that moment. Yeah, she was angry with me. It was my decision not to leave Kiima to those two idiots trying to kill her... But she wasn't a bad person, I didn't think. We'd fought, but she'd left us alone when we'd left the lands of the Pheonix people. I started wrapping another bandage around her shoulder. "Why, because she was the one who I fought last month?"

A glass of cold water washed over Kiima's form and I was suddenly staring directly into the pained face of Akane, whimpering as wounds reopened and blood seeped through bandages. I hadn't even notice the glass in Nabiki's hand. Kiima twisted as her wounds continued to reopen with the shifting of her body's shape. Fresh blood stained her tunic, and some of the bandages I'd tied were torn apart as her form expanded.

"Nabiki, what the hell is your problem! You coulda hurt her!" I yelled, slamming my fist into the floor. I'd rarely ever given in to the pressure to hit a girl, but the middle Tendo sister was starting to make all of Akane's rants about equality sound very appealing. I forcefully ripped apart more sheets, then began removing the old, split bandages from Kiima's body.

More blood, maybe more than she could afford to lose at this point. Some of the wounds had been deeper than I'd thought, it seemed. I shot a glare at the brunette as I raced to redo the work she'd ruined. "She's hurt enough as is! Don't go triggering her curse!"

"Ranma, what is your problem?" Nabiki growled, leaning in close. Her eyes were wild with emotion I'd rarely seen in her before. "This bitch nearly killed Akane! Why are you helping her?"

I took a deep breath, eventually meeting Nabiki's gaze. I don't know if she saw something in them that she'd just never noticed before or if I'd finally come to some decision about my life and decided to change things. I don't think I'll ever be able to seperate the difference, really. All I know is that I surprised her with the look in my eyes, undercutting the rage she was gripping.

"Doesn't matter who she is. She's in trouble. It's my duty to help out." I was calm about this statement. It felt right, like nothing I'd ever said before. I'd said the words but in the past they'd been convenient. I'd help those who needed help but choosing the other path would have been personally harder, not easier. Before, refusing to help Akane, or Ryouga, or anyone would have pissed everyone off. Now the principals everyone demanded of me was pitting me against them.

Despite what people might think about my intelligence, the irony of the situation wasn't lost on me.

"Boy, are you turning your back on your fiance?" Of course my old man would put things that way. In his mind, things were always in black and white: His decisions being right and anything else being wrong. Seeing the look on old man Tendou's face, I knew my father was stricking a cord. Nabiki grinned with something akin to triumph though in the back of mind, behind the rising anger, I think she realised I'd been pushed far enough to push back. Her grin froze at the look in my eyes.

"How dare you idiots make this a choice? If it comes down to Kiima's life or this engagement, I choose Kiima's life!" I finished, glaring at my father. In my own head, I'd done more for Akane than anyone could ask. A pheonix rose up against me and in Akane's name and Akane's name alone, I'd utterly vanquished him. That fight had not been about my pride, either in my own infallibility or in my skill in martial arts. That fight had been about Akane's life and in that battle I'd been victorious against a foe almost anyone would have balked at fighting.

Instead, I'd torn his damned head off of his shoulders. All in Akane's name. In my own head, I couldn't understand how I had anything to prove to these people. I had nothing to prove to myself. I loved Akane, plain and simple. I could admit it, to myself. I would not let anyone else die in her name, even if it meant pissing off these fools. In my head, I was sure Akane wouldn't want Kiima's death staining anyone's hands, especially in the name of her pride.

In your head, everything seems clear. More clear than the most perfectly shaped crystal. Clearer than the purest water in the brightest sunlight.

"You're abandoning my daughter?" Soun growled, and I knew things were about to spiral out of control. It was a traincar careening wildly back and forth, out of my control. I knew this was not an issue I could back down on, not with a person's life on the line. Gently picking up Kiima's prone form, her head nestled against my neck, I glared at the man. Daring him to continue.

I found my voice before he could.

"One more word Tendou, and I'm gone for good. I ain't gonna stand for another word about abandoning her in the street. She stays or I go." I made this statement full of bravado. Full of the boundless confidence which ruled my every action. In my mind this statement had only one solution: Kiima would stay and her wounds would be tended properly. She would get the bedrest she needed tonight and then in the morning she'd tell me who's ass I'd have to kick to make things alright.

Then I'd go do it, and a week later everything would be back to the way it was.

In retrospect, it's hard to blame Akane's reaction to the scene. Half-asleep, she came into the living room to see her doppleganger cradled in my arms, my steely eyes meeting the anger of her sisters and her father, the people she trusted the most.

"Ranma, what's going on here?" Akane demanded. This was my chance to vindicate myself of everything and get her to agree with me. Surely she'd see the reason for tending to Kiima's wounds. The woman was hurt. She was being chased by forces that were, compared to her skills, undefeatable. Already she'd lost her weapon and her will to fight. Half-unconscious and grasping at straws, at hope, she'd come to the home of her enemies.

"Ranma doesn't care about you, Akane! He's chosen Kiima over you! He's broken the engagement already!" Soun growled, before I could speak. Before I could make things right. And in that moment I knew her father's words doomed any chance of my fiance siding with me. Anger danced in Akane's eyes now and I knew that nothing I could say at the moment could change anything. She furiously glared at me, her gaze demanding an answer and apology all in one even before the first word of denial escaped my lips.

Kiima whimpered in my arms.

My choice was clear.

"Akane..." I tried in the softest voice I could muster. Her demeanor didn't change one bit. I guess that at the time her mind was set. Either I set down Kiima and went to her or I've chosen Kiima over her. Black and white, just the way my old man liked things. Just like her father said. He stood in the back, not commenting any further. His concept of the situation was plainly evident in the glare on his face, growing with every instant I held the injured woman in my arms.

I looked at Akane. In her eyes, I saw no questions, no forgiveness. Only anger. Kiima's weight didn't strain my muscles, but I could feel every pound of her burden on my soul. No more choices.

Keep it simple, stupid. Nabiki's advice, long ago. Less than a year, but an eternity. My face calmed and I took one last look at the place which had been my home for over a year and a half. Longer than I'd had a home for over a decade and this was how it ended. At least I'd be leaving an impression. My eyes turned back to my fiance...

"I'm sorry." Maybe it was just the words, words she'd seldom heard from my lips before. Maybe it was the calm look in my eyes as things rapidly spinned out of control and I maintained the course which I'd plotted despite the maelstrom battering me. Whatever it was, it broke her anger and turned it to sadness. She fled back up the stairs, leaving only a sparkling trail of tears. I watched it, steeling my heart against this reaction. I wanted to go to her, to explain.

With her family and my father here, now... It was an impossible wish, a momentary fantasy. Wordlessly I gathered my pack and left. I didn't bother to listen to the last few words the household tried to offer.

oOo

I'd already set up camp on of the outskirts of Nerima when Kiima awoke. By this point I'd gathered myself sufficiently to present a cheerful mask to her, despite the fact that her questioning eyes wore Akane's face.

"How did it happen?" I asked. I allowed a slow grin to come to my face. The grin was empty, but in the back of my mind I hoped she didn't notice. "Who's ass do I gotta kick to make things better again?"

I hoped I could.

oOo

Author's Notes:

This is a rewrite. Bear that in mind if the following seems to make no sense.

Okay, where to start? The title, I guess. Recension is another word for rewrite. I didn't want to just title this Loss, Hope & Redemption: The Rewrite. Well, I did, but I used a prettier word to do it.

...stop judging me.

Moving on: Those interesting in such things there's an insufferably cute picture of Ranma and Kiima in my profile, under the June update.

As regards the plot... I liked Ranma's ejection from the Tendo household too much to get rid of it. With a few words tweaked I think it's grown from feeling forced, to feeling more like a tense situation which lead to words being spoken everyone present knew they wanted to take back, but couldn't. That was always my intent but I feel I've made it a lot clearer this time.

Aside from that, this was just a beefing-up what was already there and clarifying poor prose. It's frightening to look at a story I first began nearly three years ago. Half of the poorly phrased passages had me scratching my head and wondering what I was drinking to possibly leave things as they were.

Then I remember I wrote the first chapter on Christmas Eve. Eggnog.


	2. Chapter 2

Loss, Hope, and Redemption: Recension

oOo

Chapter 2

oOo

Kiima used Akane's brown eyes to search mine, a look far more penetrating than my tomboy's gaze could ever be. I felt like she wasn't just staring at me, but was instead staring through me and seeing everything I was trying to hide. I tore my gaze from hers and got up, crossing to my backpack under the pretense of grabbing a styrofoam cup of ramen.

As injured as she was, I wasn't surprised when Kiima refused the food... but that brief moment away from those searching eyes allowed me to bring my roiling emotions back under control. Now her eyes were the ones to shy away from mine as she took a breath, searching for words.

"Herb has gone to war with the Phoenix people. Some Amazons have joined with him, although we don't know if they are renegades or if this was… planned." It was a simple statement, given in Akane's voice but adding layers of cold iron to her tones which I'd never heard from Akane before. Akane wasn't one for cold anger: Her anger always burned white hot, intense. Quick to flare up, but just as quick to die down.

Brown eyes searched the fire as she paused, looking for words. When she finally resumed speaking, I got the impression Kiima was talking to herself as much as me. "He's using the Chiisuiton against our warriors, trapping them in their human forms. Losing the ability to fly means we've lost our most important advantage against those beasts."

Her hands gripped the fabric of the black pants she'd borrowed from me, and I knew just how important that loss was. While Herb had certainly been a strong opponent, Mint and Lime were no pushovers either: Without Ryouga and Mousse, my assault against Herb on that mountain to obtain the restorative water would have been a sure loss. Kiima's lieutenants, however, had been a negligable threat at best without their wings: Akane could have taken either without significant trouble.

"Right now, we are holed up in our mountain fortress," which I interpreted as another way of saying they were on the verge of being overrun. Nobody would willingly seal themselves within any defensive position, no matter how good, unless they no longer had the military might to send out scouting parties. "As weakened as we are, even his army will have trouble taking us out of there. But... We can't strike back. Not without the ability to fly out of our upper entrances."

I nodded, thinking about the information given. What she said told me that the situation, while very dire for her people, was still salvageable. The Phoenix tribe could rally and win back their home. And if he was able to pin the Phoenix army in the mountain this quickly, I knew Herb was now using his mind to guide his will instead of relying on his natural strength.

I felt a cold flash as I realized that maybe this was all my fault, because Saffron wasn't there to protect his people. I couldn't regret what I'd done, no matter how guilty I was beginning to feel about the results... but there it was.

I ignored the feeling of something hot and sticky on my face, a phantom memory I'd hoped would be long buried by now. My concentration shifted to the stranger wearing my fiancee's form.

"So, we just gotta get the Kaisufuu." I said, folding my arms. It seemed pretty simple to me: Grabbing that artifact would be the key to restoring the Phoenix people to a defensible position. They needed to fly to be able to strike back, to take back a tenable position. With the magical kettle they'd be able to do that. They'd be able to fly again. I grinned. "I'll go kick Herb's ass again, and then we can turn everybody back to normal."

"It won't be that easy." Her gaze finally lifted from the fire to meet my own. Her eyes were flat, empty. Like she knew she should be feeling angry about the situation, but she'd just become too numb to work up the energy she needed to feel any sort of rage. I nodded, and that seemed to break the moment. She continued, "When Herb first attacked, he nearly made it to Lord Saffron's chambers. We managed to push him and his forces back out, but we've learned that while he was retreating he stole the Kinjakan and the Gekkaja. These combined with his Hiryu Shoten Ha have made him much more powerful."

So, Herb had those two magical staves. I still remembered the heat given off by the Kinjakan. The cold of the Gekkaja had reached me even deep in the Soul of Ice technique. Combined, those two would make for a very powerful opponent the hands of any martial artist, let alone one who knew a technique which could take advantage of the powerful combination. I still remembered the advantage the Gakkaja had afforded me in my fight with Saffron, remembered how that had allowed me to survive until I could figure out a way to win. Neither was a weapon to be taken lightly.

Then there was the fact that on a personal level Herb was probably stronger than Saffron was, if I had to guage both of them without the staves. Saffron had been the far tougher foe, but if the Kinjakan was as effective as the Gekkaja, he'd certainly had a lot of help when he was facing me. Herb, on the other hand, lost only because I'd pulled a last minute revision directly from the blue to beat him right before his Hiryu Shoten Ha robbed me of all my strength and left me a withered shell of an opponent.

With those two weapons in his possession he'd be a much more impressive opponent. Perhaps, despite my own growth since last we'd fought, he'd be a lot more powerful than I was. Direct confrontation with him would almost certainly mean a loss for me unless I was very, very sharp. I would have to exploit every opening and offer none in return if I wanted to pretend to challenge him.

That was even if he'd let me fight him one on one: He'd certainly have his army with him, and I somehow doubted they'd sit idly by while I kicked Herb's ass. They had to be neutralized somehow. Maybe I could play up the personal challenge or maybe the Phoenix would be enough of a balance to the Musk that I could do my thing with Herb without interference long enough to get the weapons away from him.

No matter what, this was certainly going to be on a whole new level when compared to everything I'd faced before, save for my fight with Saffron. This time, I knew the stakes wouldn't be so drastic. My tomboy's life wasn't on the line, I wasn't fighting for any reason except the gut feeling that fighting was right. I couldn't count on desperation and luck to see me through the coming storm.

My grin was genuine, this time.

"Well, this should be fun," I chuckled to my companion, shifting so I was lying on my side. Now I was the one staring into the flickering camp fire. My thoughts raced a mile a minute as I threw my knowledge of the Musk and the Phoenix against my impressive collection of martial lore. I'd never been the general in a battle, but my old man had made me study enough history and warfare that I could act like an inexperienced one in a pinch.

I mulled over my options as I let the dancing of the flames throw me into a sort of trance: I needed to have a face to face with Herb. I needed to test myself against him before I made any real decisions. I needed to know, first hand, just how great the difference in our strength, our prowess, really was. I needed to know if the chasm in our ability was great enough that I'd need help to take him down, like I had with Pantyhose in his cursed state, or if it was a chasm I could cross with a flying leap of pure martial arts intuition.

After all... Maybe I could just take Saffron's staves back away from him. Maybe I could distract him long enough for others to grab the Kaisufuu, or even take it back myself. Maybe I could walk into the Musk encampment, stomp Herb's princely ass into every puddle I could find, and show the poor bastards he was leading that facing me was a very, very bad idea.

Something to fix this problem. I'd destroyed the balance of that little valley: It was my duty to restore it.

"You certainly have an interesting definition of fun, Saotome," Kiima drawled and I chuckled, a cocky smirk coming to my face at the comment. It wasn't until my eyes left the fire to find hers that I saw she'd stopped moving, stopped blinking, as if seeing me for the first time.

In that blank, incomprehensible stare I saw a total re-evalutation of me on her face. Maybe she was weighing me against some set of scales, knowing what she now knew of me: Her face suddenly went pale as she read the look in my eyes and the grin on my face like a book.

"You want this fight," I couldn't help but admire the way she kept Akane's voice from spiraling up into a shrill squawk at the realization. She continued to speak, almost as if her thoughts were finding their way directly to her throat. "You want to face Herb and his forces. The idea of him having the Kinjakan and the Gekkaja actually excites you!"

I didn't even bother to deny it, recognizing it myself: She'd nailed it in one. I couldn't deny the thought of a strong foe stirred up something in me that I knew wasn't quite normal. There was something about a supposedly insurmountable obstacle which tweaked something deep inside me, made me want to prove everyone wrong about their expectations.

I guess you could say that that was my bliss, my Nirvana: Me, a powerful opponent, and that thin dance between perfection and oblivion, testing me to my very limits. The pure, undeniable strength of my foe forcing me to reinvent the most complex chi techniques in existence in order to stay scrabbling at the edge and keep myself in the fight for just a few more seconds. Something about that thin line made victory that much sweeter.

I swung myself around and got to my feet in one smooth motion. As I stretched, several of my joints popped. I began to walk off.

I didn't just want to, I **needed **to train.

"Where are you going?" She demanded, her voice now shrill and urgent. Angry or frightened, this was a tone I was a lot more used to hearing from that voice. This tone was hot and full of life. It could have been Akane yelling at me as I wandered off after school, into the path of a rampaging demon or unstoppable threat with the same casual ease I dropped by Ucchan's for a snack.

I stopped, glancing over my shoulder at her. I guess there was something in my eyes she really didn't like seeing because the very act made her flinch with the same intensity as if I'd rounded on her with raised fists and a gutteral snarl.

I guess I had 'that look', as my old man always called it. I'd never seen it myself.

I was always training when it happened: He'd always described it as feral, an unnerving glint that had no place in the eyes of a martial artist, or any person in this world. He'd always told me that such a gleeful expectation at the thought of a fight went against the principals of the Anything Goes school, that nobody should ever feel such joy at the thought of battle.

I couldn't help it. I grinned at the stunned girl sitting across from me.

"If I don't train, I won't be able to kick Herb's ass and take his new toys away from him. I've been working on that flying trick of his. It's pretty draining, but I have the feeling I'm just doing it wrong. I think I'm going to need it if I'm going to be fighting him."

Her eyes widened, and I walked into the night, away from the campfire. I hoped I was wrong about the technique. Like I was using it now, it took almost all of my chi to work. I could maintain it for only a few minutes before I was exhausted. If I was using it right already, it meant Herb was a lot stronger than I'd given him credit for… But I knew that couldn't be the case. I'd beaten him once, I could do it again.

Rest could come later. I needed to learn that technique before I got to China.

oOo

The following morning, we discussed the route we would take back to Kiima's home. Whatever feelings Kiima had about me, she'd buried them by the time she woke up: Her face was an emotionless mask while we prepared breakfast and got read to move.

It was maybe two hundred miles to a little fishing village I knew about, on the south side of Wakasa Bay. Me and my old man had spent a few weeks there after our trip across the Sea of Japan and I still remembered the semi-frequent arrival of young couples wanting to go for a nice, long trip along the coast of China. Some of the old fishermen had boats that could make the trip, and back given a long day's journey on the way there and another long journey back. It was well known for weekend trips.

More importantly, the old fishermen weren't too picky about passports or travel visas. I'm pretty sure my passport expired long ago and if Kiima even knew what one was I'd be surprised.

Given the relatively short distance, we made slow progress. A train would have gotten us there in a day but we needed to save what little money I've left the Tendou dojo with for the boat. It didn't help that Kiima was still pretty injured and I was training to the point of exhaustion every night. We moved at a snail's pace in between mile-devouring bouts of hitchhiking, our chances of such heavily aided by a splash of cold water turning us into a couple into two cute, lost girls on the road.

She was always in Akane's form, me not wanting to risk her injuries against further transformations. After a few half-hearted protests, she agreed with me. At first, I almost called Kiima by the name of my tomboy, when I was preoccupied with something else and not really paying attention. I always caught myself before the whisper of my fiancee's name passed my lips, but I could tell my traveling companion noticed. I didn't know if that bothered her or not: She never actually brought it up, for which I was grateful.

In an effort to focus my mind, I threw myself even further into the training. I began as soon as we stopped for the day and finished only when I was too weak to continue. On the third morning I woke up so tired from my exertions that we were forced to wait for the occasional hitchhike to makle progress as I recovered.

It took us five days to get to the village and in that time I quickly learned her mannerisms. By the end, I could tell the difference between her and the real Akane at a glance, regardless of the fact they shared the exact same body.

Even though she wore the youngest Tendou's form, her habits were so un-Akane that I barely recognized her as sharing the same face as my tomboy, at times. She moved with a careful grace, considering every step before she took it. She was constantly aware of her surroundings, always looking around and noticing sounds even I would miss… I doubted I could sneak up on her without the aid of the Umisenken. I was pretty sure not even the old ghoul was as attentive.

However, one thing that really marked the difference between Akane and Kiima was the Phoenix tribe lady's temper. She kept an iron grip on her emotions and I only really saw it slip the one time I caused us to be delayed. Even then it wasn't a raging beast quelled only by the application of violence... More a snow woman demeanor that expressed vague disappointment which somehow made me feel far worse.

It was somehow more terrible than Akane's brief rages, since I never really knew when she'd let the anger pass or if she still wore it like a shroud. Knowing her for as briefly as I did, I couldn't tell when she was angry and still holding it in or when she'd truly let things slide.

I'll admit that the nicest surprise was her discovering she had the ability to cook. It wasn't something she liked doing... but she hated my cooking more than she hated doing itself. After tasting one of her meals, I agreed with her. She cooked very well, probably as a result of having to raise Saffron. If the brat was as spoiled as I'd seen, he no doubt had had very exacting standards.

On the day before we were due to arrive in the fishing village, I judged her healed well enough to finally risk the transformation to her real form. She displayed impatience for the first time I'd know her, waiting for me to heat the water. I still remember it now, because I remember it was the first time I'd seen her display any sort of human emotion. She didn't even test the heat of the water, opting to just douse herself and trigger the change. Simply unfurling her wings seemed to be a massive relief for her.

In that instant she'd flashed me a rare smile, brimming with warmth I'd never before seen.

That day, near the end of our journey, she spent the entire time I was walking flying high above me: She looped in the air and banked at speeds I had trouble tracking, an impish smile on her face the entire time.

We arrived at Wakasa bay on a bright and sunny day, both of us wearing what was left of my clean clothes. Kiima had quickly declared that my white sleeveless shirt would be hers, having discarded her bloodied and torn tunic as unsalvageable. I was wearing my green outfit, complete with red-star hat on my head.

It was pretty easy to find a boat within my price range but the old man who owned the tourist bout didn't seem eager to take us on the trip out to the coast of China. I knew he was the only one at this village who I could afford to hire for a trip that far... Aside from him, I couldn't even hire a boat to take us out halfway, not without causing a massive ruckus.

I looked forlornly at the water and considered the swim. It wouldn't be fun at all, just like last time. At least Kiima could fly, now. She could meet me on the opposite coast with a warm meal and a kettle of hot water, both of which were luxuries I'd gone without on my last swim.

"Please sir!" Kiima pleaded in a voice so high it was almost a falsetto, and I almost jumped as she latched onto my arm. I glanced, and I saw a look of intellectual vacancy on her face. "My boyfriend promised me he'd take me on a hike in some parts of China, but you're the only one who can take us before our vacation time is over! Pleeeeaaase?"

I swallowed a chuckle as the old guy's face softened, though I was still trying not to freak out about how Kiima was latched onto my arm. The way she was holding on to me made it feel like someone had shoved Shampoo's mind into Akane's body... Which was a decidedly odd sensation, and one I'm still not sure how to ponder to this day.

"Well, I suppose I could take you. These old bones could do with a trip. The fresh air and sun might do me some good, after all." He chuckled at the gasp from Kiima, and blushed as she spewed a torrent of "thank-yous" at him. He got up from where he sat, waving us on to the boat. "Let's get underway. You and your boyfriend can sit up front, and watch the waves."

"Alright, let's go Ranma!" Kiima squealed, dragging me onto the boat and up to the front. As soon as we were up front and the old guy was busy preparing his small cruise boat for the trip, her face fell back into that calculating look I'd grown accustomed to seeing. "Thank God, I hate acting like that."

Still, she maintained her death grip on my arm, as if the old man might glance up to the front and change his mind.

"What the heck was that?" I whispered, curious. I had a fairly good idea, but I wasn't sure why she did the whole squeaky voice and everything. It was almost like the sort of act I might have done when trying to get sweets out of a vendor... and even I knew it was a pathetic, transparent act.

"I'll be damned if I've got to walk another mile, Saotome. I don't know how you groundlings can stand it." I chuckled at this, and she shot me a dirty look.

"Not like we have much choice in the matter." I snorted in reply, looking out over the waves. Thankfully we were moving fast enough that the water was being sprayed to either side of the boat, so my curse was in no danger of being activated yet. Eventually the boat began to zip along, probably going around sixty kilometers an hour as it ate the distance between us and our destination.

"I'm serious." She added, and in the corner of my eye I could see her still watching me. She shifted her arms, and now she was just lightly clasping my arm as she stood to my right, leaning on the railing. "I don't know how you groundlings can walk like you do. My legs are burning from all the walking we've done."

I felt a bit of guilty pleasure at the sensation. Rationally, I knew it wasn't Akane on my arm... But it looked like her, felt like her. Was it really so bad to just pretend for a minute?

"You'll probably get used to it." I said with a weak grin, returning to the present. I kept my eyes on the ocean. My left hand grasped the rail by reflex as we hit a rough wave, and I looked down at the water sailing by underneath us. "This is definitely better than the first time I went to China. Me and the old man swam from the western tip of Hokkaido."

"You swam this ocean?" Kiima sputtered, and I chuckled as I remembered. That had only been a couple years ago, but already it felt like it was a lifetime away.

"Yeah, my old man called it training. Really, he probably blew the money on gambling or food. I didn't mind, though. Swimming this ocean, it was like I was fighting it. Every splash of my arms was a strike against it drowning me. Even when the storm hit, we continued to swim." I chuckled as I gestured to the water below with my free hand. "We didn't go this fast, though."

Kiima said nothing, finally turning to watch the ocean herself.

For the rest of the trip, aside from occasional comments about the passing scenery, Kiima said nothing. Late that evening, as we lay in the narrow bunks of the boat, I listened to the lapping water on the hull. Eventually, I drifted off to the rythm of water on wood.

oOo

The next morning, we hit the coast of China forty kilometers or so north of Shanghai. I paid the old man and we were off, swimming the kilometer or so to shore. Behind us, the old man and his boat left, heading back for his home port which lay a day and a half away. He'd expressed some concern about our return trip, but Kiima devoutly promised him we had plans already.

"I can't believe how tired I feel!" Kiima grumbled, as I lit a small fire on the beach. We both needed a splash of hot water before we could continue our journey. She looked at the land around and I got the feeling she was welcoming herself back home, or maybe just chronicling the distance we'd made to our goal.

"We can move fast now." I told her, focusing on the crackling flames and the slow heating of the water. I concentrated, and channeled my chi just so. With a leap that normally would have carried me barely ten feet into the air, I cleared four times that. I landed, and she was staring. "I've figured out enough of the technique that I can keep up with you flying. We'll move fast and we can probably make it to Phoenix Mountain inside of a week. Then we can deal with Herb and his goons."

"Ranma… Why are you so determined to help me?" Kiima finally asked the question. I'd been waiting for it. It made sense that she'd be curious, but I guess she'd waited until now out of fear I might back out and go home.

Not that I would. Or could, if I wanted to be honest about it.

"I ain't good with words, but it's pretty simple. Because of me, your people aren't able to defend themselves. It's my fault Herb has the Kaisufuu, and the only reason he's attacking you guys is because I took out Saffron." I breathed out slowly, and made a conscious effort to look her in her face. Akane's face weighing my words and my actions, as passive and stony as the face of the strictest judge. "The way I see it is... Well, because it's all my fault, I should be the one to fix things."

It wasn't quite as simple. She couldn't know about the complex situation which had actually driven me from the dojo, and even I couldn't really admit that I was following this path as much for a desire for some structure, any structure to my life than any desire to help.

"I see." I didn't know if she did, but I didn't care. Things made sense to me (more or less) and that was all that mattered. I dipped a finger into the water, and determined that it was warm enough. Grabbing a cup and dunking it into the water, I changed back. "Uh, Saotome? We've got a problem."

"What is it?" I became immediately alert, and dropped into a loose stance. My aura surged forward, breaking through the dams I put up with little effort. I extended my senses, but aside from Kiima I couldn't feel anything anywhere even close. My concentration broke as I realized Kiima was laughing. I stood. "Hey, what's so funny?"

"Saotome, I meant that I just need to fix this shirt before I can wear it. It's not made for my wings." I couldn't help myself. I began to laugh. I laughed so hard I had to lean on my knees to hold myself up. Kiima laughed with me.

When we finally calmed down, she took the shirt off and grabbed one of my muscle shirts, wearing it backwards. This covered her chest pretty well, but the dip in the "front" left enough room that when she transformed, her wings posed no problems. "C'mon, Saotome. We've got a lot of ground to cover."

I answered her challenge by slinging our packs over my shoulders and bounding off, every leap carrying me forty or fifty feet as I bounced along the ground. Up above Kiima soared among the thermals, rising high into the sky as she pursued me.

It took a little less than a week for us to get to the valley. Every night, we'd finally stop and I'd be exhausted beyond anything I'd felt since the day we'd been forced to stop. Keeping up with Kiima was a grueling task, taking all my concentration and energy. In sharp contrast to my own efforts, flying was as simple as strolling for Kiima. A light bone structure combined with a multitude of thermals in the bright summer sky meant she could spend the majority of her time in the air just cruising along the winds, watching me bound along the ground trying to keep up.

Often I was asleep before Kiima would finish dinner, and in the morning I'd devour whatever she put in front of me, cold or not. One day, for a pleasant change, the sky was cloudy and the thermals were few: By the time we camped barely six hours after we'd started, it was Kiima who was tired.

Her wings, resembling the wings of a hawk, were not designed for the constant flapping the lack of thermals called for. Every mile of that day had been a struggle for her, but she raised no more complaint about the pace I set than I had of the the pace she'd demanded of me. We stopped only on my word, though even I could see through her annoyance at stopping so early.

It was a pleasant, if uneventful few days. On the one day the sky was cloudy there wasn't actually any rain, and every other day was bright and cloudless. We traveled quickly and lightly, and rarely stopped for breaks. This reckless speed made the distance between the coast and the interior almost negligible.

This cycle continued until she began to recognize the lands around us, and we knew we'd need to take care. Cautiously, with Kiima flitting barely above the tree line in a mode of movement resembling hops more than true flight, we arrived at Phoenix Mountain.

I was unprepared for what I saw. As we crested the final ridgeline between the vast plains surrounding the mountain, an army stretched out ahead of us. There must have been almost five thousand men sitting around camp fires, training, eating, or fixing their weapons. Towards one edge of the camp, a collection of Amazons clearly kept themselves distant from the Musk, though just as clearly working with them.

In the midst of the camp, a huge tent stood. Even at the great distance between us, I could recognize Herb as he moved among his followers, giving direction to them and bending to speak with a few. Beyond this army rose Phoenix Mountain in all it's majesty. Our goal.

"I've got a plan." I stated, grinning as everything fell into place. We'd caught rabbits earlier in the day, and the skins were hanging off to the side. "I can sneak into the Musk camp. With the rabbit pelts, they won't know anything is up. I'll steal the Kaisufuu and Chiisuiton, so that we can stop them using that stuff against your people."

"You're crazy. They'll figure you out." Kiima deadpanned, looking at the Musk camp below. She shook her head. "All the Musk animals are predators. They don't breed with prey, and a rabbit IS prey. Not to mention the fact that the army is small enough that you might get noticed as being an outsider."

"Hey, they won't know the difference if I don't leave any ears or nothing on the rabbit's skins. I'll move fast enough that nobody will really question me. I'm fast enough to escape most of these guys anyways. I'll just avoid Herb and his two goons." The plan was perfect, in my opinion. "You can go get that gate open so that when I come running, you can let me in."

"It's too dangerous." Kiima declared, crossing her arms. She glanced sharply up the ridge, over which the army lay camped. "All it would take is one person figuring out something was wrong. Surely the Chiisuiton and Kaisufuu will be recognized, so getting out of the camp will be almost impossible even if you can steal them."

"Kiima… Your people need their flight back. I've seen you fight without your wings. You're pathetic." Her lips tightened and her eyes narrowed at this, but she didn't say anything. "If your people keep getting trapped, even if they win the fight they'll lose. All Herb has to do is hide the Kaisufuu, and any victory you might win would be useless."

"Saotome, are you sure about this?" Kiima asked, pointedly. She was no longer arguing with me, at least. I'd made my point.

I nodded my assent.

"Kiima, fly to your home. I've got some things to steal."

oOo

Author's Notes:

Okay, that was messed up. For whatever reason, my first posting of Chapter 2 decided to go from the nice, well-formatted story I posted to a huge ol' block o' text. It's fixed now.`

Somewhat important but not really to this revision will be the dropped plotline of Amazons being in Herb's army. To be honest, the plotline was not dropped from the original version of LH&R for any reason except that by the time I got around to the point it would have mattered, I'd decided to focus exclusively on the Ranma-exclusive POV.

It'll be explored more thoroughly in LHR:Reflections. Though speaking of which I've still got to write the first chapter for that, don't I? As I've said, each entry will encompass the same duration of the supporting Recension chapter and each will be told from the perspective of one of the supporting cast. Right now I'm decidedly torn regarding which character I want to use for the first chapter.

Uh, not much to say regarding this. More clean up and expansion of already-existing text, and this time I'm working from an already-set outline (instead of pulling it directly from my ass as I go) so I should be able to keep from dropping threads of the plot in the future. I also revised the length of time for travel in minor ways to make it a little more believable.

I also cut this chapter a little short, because the length was getting a bit much. Six thousand words for a chapter is quite enough.

Cheers,

Gaming Ikari


	3. Chapter 3

Loss, Hope & Redemption: Recension

oOo

Chapter 3

oOo

Hide tents made from an endless variety of animal skins filled my vision with every step into the Musk encampment. E verything from common deer to wildly exotic lion skins comprised the shelter of the army, which I supposed was a mark of status. Regardless, it was just another factor to note in my mind as I strode with the best calm I could manage, my hair unbound and covered in rabbit pe;lts..

I could have easily slipped past everyone using the Umi-sen-ken, but I'd promised to seal those techniques away and never use them again. I was starting to regret that promise.

The closer I got to my destination, the more common the curious looks became, a relatively unknown soldier striding to the center of the camp: But, I'd been overlooked so far. If anyone asked any questions, I knew I was going to be in for a fight.

Kami's sake, I couldn't even speak Chinese well enough to coherently lie. If I could even lie to them successfully in the first place. I know myself well enough to know I lie terribly even in Japanese.

I pushed aside the momentary distraction as I got within a couple hundred feet of the center tent. Nervously casting my gaze around, I ducked between two tents when I was unobserved, disappearing from the main "road" splitting the wide lane I'd been walking. I carefully began masking my chi, bringing it to miniscule levels.

Thus prepared, I began to sneak towards the main tent.

Guards patrolled every possible approach, but within two passes I noted the ways in which the patrols were lax and inefficient. Their demeanor screamed that they weren't expecting trouble. Herb thought he had the people in that mountain defeated. He didn't expect them to attack, and it showed in the layout of his camp. In short, they weren't ready for war anymore, not really. They expected to swarm the people they threatened through sheer numbers, crushing them beneath an unyielding boot.

It was like Kunou's innumerable openings. A succubus begging me to take advantage of the compromised situation in which I found her. It would be an act of criminal negligence not to exploit the weakness.

It was laughably easy to sneak right up to one of the walls of the large tent. I pilfered a dagger from a mearby tent, empty save for unguarded possessions, and used the tool to cut a slit in the wall of Herb's tent at the bottom, sliding underneath.

Inside, the enclosure was quiet. For once it appeared that Lady Luck was on my side: I'd come right up on the Chiisuiton and Kaisufuu. The pair of ancient artifacts rested on rough-hewn crates, as if waiting for my hand to take them. I glanced around, finally spotting a leather sack hung from a support beam disappearing into the shadows above me..

Kettle, ladle, and bucket all went right into the sack and I carefully lifted the slit I'd made at the bottom of the tent as I prepared to escape. I nearly flinched as another patrol walked by, but they didn't notice my footprints leading to the wall of the tent or the slit I'd made. As they walked away, I slipped back out of the tent, the sack on my shoulder.

Using nearby tents as cover, I snuck away from the tent. When I was a couple hundred feet away, I walked back onto one of the roads leading out from the center of the camp, the sack slung over my shoulder. I strode amongts the Musk as if I were one of them, nodding to a few raised heads and grinning in return to flashed smiles.

For that short time, I was one of them.

I was maybe two hundred feet from the edge of the camp when the alarm went up, sending the camp into a storm of activity. Musk soldiers grabbed their weapons and began to mill in a chaotic disarray, as if trying to read the bells to discern the intruder.

Not wanting to appear out of place, I grabbed a nearby spear and began to run for the edge of camp, roaring Chinese curses with the rest of them. I knew my luck couldn't last and wasn't disappointed.

"Hey, you!" As the statement was yelled, I knew I'd been spotted as the intruder. I abandoned caution andI hurled the spear in the direction of the soldier who'd spotted me. With one mighty leap I cleared the edge of the camp and was bouncing towards Phoenix Mountain, Herb's flying technique easing the straiin very considerably.

Behind me, patrols came hot on my heels. It was the work of mere minutes to outdistance them and lose them in the forests covering Mount Phoenix's initial slopes. As I continued up the mountain, I looked for any sign of Kiima or her people. Without their aid, I'd be hunted down sooner or later... I didn't know the area, couldn't hope to avoid the patrols...

It wasn't until that moment that I realized just how much I'd been depending on my travelling partner: Until those desperate moments where I scrambled up the foothills of Mount Phoenix, I hadn't really given any thought to how much trust I'd invested in my victim's surrogate mother. It wasn't until I was nearly surrounded, nearly dead, that I actually gave thought to how much I'd been depending on someone being there for me.

Kiima... Well, I didn't spot her, but she must have seen me running because moments after I entered the forest she dropped in beside me with practiced ease. My relief was matched only by the hopeful grin she wore at the sight of the sack slung over my left shoulder. I returned the grin, willing myself not to express too much relief.

"This way, Saotome." She led me up the slopes, and eventually into a cave. A heavy steel door was built right into the walls of the cave, and it stood ajar. We hurried inside and some wingless soldiers pulled the door shut behind us. "Do you have them?"

"Of course. I'm the best, you know." I added, taking the rabbit skins off of myself. I sniffed, and shook my head. My mind still whriled at the audacity of invading the Musk camp, let alone stealing their treasured artifacts right from under their noses. Something more important caught my attention, however, and I winced at the look on Kiima's face. "Man, I need a nice hot bath."

"Well, thanks to your last visit you just might get it, Saotome." Kiima replied blandly. I didn't like the way she said might, nor did I like the way she was refusing to meet my gaze. "First, we've got to convince the council not to throw you back out to the Musk."

Then, I remembered. In the weeks that led up to this moment, my arrival here, I'd almost forgotten the damage I'd done last time. Put that right up there with all the other impossible acts I've performed, but I'd forgotten that I'd killed their lord and master. Thanks to me these people were in this position in the first place. The thought sobered me immensely and I just nodded to Kiima. She turned and led me up the many stairways of the mountain.

oOo

"When you're in there, you're going to need to constantly remind them that you've come to help. You're going to need to remind them that you've brought them the Chiisuiton and Kaisufuu, and that you've defeated Herb before." Kiima was now repeating herself for the third or fourth time. I guess she was nervous about my meeting with this council. With the way she was talking, I was starting to get nervous myself. "Point out that you don't have anything against us and that you bear us no ill will for anything that happened before."

Despite the fact I very could, perhaps should have still been pissed. Whatever. One problem at a time.

"Yeah, yeah. I get it, Kiima." I muttered, looking around at the fancy room the whiney little politician had stuffed us into. A large painting of Saffron as an adult adorned one wall, sitting on a perch of some kind and looking over people below with an expression I could only call serene. This painting stood above a large wooden liquor cabinet which was filled with filled crystal bottles adorned in gold. Even the seats we were sitting on were trimmed in precious metals and carpeting this thick was, I'd learned, a rare luxury for a people with razor-sharp talons on their feet.

I slouched further down into my low-backed chair, feeling more out of place as every moment passed.

It was hard to get comfortable in a seat designed for people with wings, and the chair itself felt fragile. Across from me perched lightly in another chair and sipping at some amber liquid, Kiima watched me.

The plan was that Kiima would go talk to the council first, and then they'd bring me in afterwards. I still couldn't believe they were thinking about refusing my help.

Of all the plans I'd considered on my way here, less than mutual co-operation hadn't even entered into my plans. Given the hundreds of other variables, maybe I could excuse myself for the lapse, this one time. Maybe.

"Lady Kiima?" A voice interupted my introspection and I glanced up at the door as Kiima's two cohorts poked their heads into the room. Masara and Koruma both reminded me of Hiroshi and Daisuke, kinda. They both shot me twin curious looks as they crossed to talk to Kiima. I'm pretty sure it was Masara who continued to speak, ignoring me. "We'd heard you've just gotten back! Are you alright? You shouldn't have left without us!"

Interesting that Kiima would come to ask me for help on her own. Maybe she wasn't supposed to have come to me? I began to pay attention, while still gazing up at Saffron's serene face in the painting. He could have been a stranger, for all the recognition I felt.

"Times are desperate, you two. We need every strong hand we can. Thanks to Saotome here, we now have a fighting chance." Kiima stood up and glared at them both. "I've heard you tried to follow me. I remember expressly forbidding you to do this. We'll talk about that later."

She glanced up as the stuffy politician returned, and simply nodded to him before he could even speak. "I want both of you to go back to your duties." Putting down the glass of liquor, she picked up the leather sack and handed it to them. "This contains two magical items known as the Chiisuiton and Kaisufuu. Ranma retrieved these items from the Musk. The kettle is the Kaisufuu, and it will restore those of our fighters who've been trapped in their human forms. I want you two to personally distribute this cure and make sure that these items are put safely into my chambers afterwards."

Without another word, she left. With a glance towards me somewhere between curiosity and respect, Masara swung the leather sack over his shoulders and quickly left the room, followed by Koruma.

oOo

Left alone, I got to my feet and began to pace. What could I say to these people to make 'em believe me? How could I prove I wasn't the bad guy and that I could help them? The sooner I could do that, the sooner I could get back to Nerima. Back to the Dojo and back to Akane. I could explain things to her. Tell her that it was my responsibility to set things I'd made wrong right.

In the back of my mind, I hoped she'd listen. A nagging voice told me that she wouldn't. Not with me gone three weeks already, and probably not getting back for another month and a half. Maybe it'd take me even longer to set things right here.

"The council will speak with you now." I turned, and at the door the stuffy politician waited impatiently. I blinked, trying to figure out how much time had passed, how long Kiima had been pleading my case to this council for. With a shrug, I realized it didn't matter.

I strode to the door and followed him.

oOo

Author's Notes

There's not much to be said regarding this chapter, either. As you may or may not have noticed already, the scope of this is quickly ramping up to fly past the original length of LH&R to much greater length. In fact, given the course it's taken thus far, it would not surprise me in the least if the newly-revised work comes in at around double the original length.

Might even be longer than that. Though I admit, this is rather short... but it acts as a bridge for the next chapter, and ending things here just feels right.

*shrug*

Cheers,

Gaming Ikari


End file.
